Favorite Mac of All Time?

[fleshman03]

Well I got bored so I thought I'd make a post and see what happens.

While looking at a Wired, I came across an article. It goes through 10 years of iMac design. Now some of us have grow up with Macs (Me until college years) and some are new to the crowd.

Based on what you have owned, used or saw, what is your favorite Mac of all time? Everything is included. MacPro, iMac, MacBooks, Power Mac, iBooks...

Post a picture if you can find one and share some experiences.

Mine is the old Power Mac G3. My middle school got two or three of these bad boys for each classroom. They replaced the old Apple IIe. Zip Drive, Floppy Drive and a CD drive. Not to mention a 15" CRT. 32 Mb Ram!

Ah the good ol' days.



Note to Mods: I posted this in the Apple, Industry and internet Discussion because I thought that's where it would fit. If you feel the collector's side of things is better, please move it.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

I like the colorful clamshell iBooks

 

[richard.mac]

Power Mac and Mac Pro.

brilliant aluminium design that no other computer case manufacturer has been able to better yet, beast of a workstation for graphic artists and musicians, has no visible wires inside when opened… only thing theyre average at is gaming.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

G4 iMacs. I reckon they are the best designed desktop computers ever, and they will be for a very long time. They look like no other computer on the market. The G3 iMacs looked like an artistically deisgned CRT monitor, and the G5 and Intel iMacs look like a normal flat panel display.

 

[Metuas]

The aluminum phase at Apple has brought about some of the best-looking computers ever design. Go Jonathan Ive.

I have owned four products of the aluminum era, starting with the PowerBook G4 and the Power Mac G5, as well as the iPhone and the MacBook Pro, and I must say I am amazed how little people understand about Apple's aesthetic. The poorly designed mockups, the ugly-looking peripherals, all go to show that Apple's design team is truly unrivaled.

Now, I've only been around to see but a few years of Apple's design, but I can say confidently that the Power Mac G5 is my favorite Mac of all time. A 20-kilo beast, it is. But its weight and size give it a majestic aura that no other Mac ever had (Except the Mac Pro, but the dimensions are identical, and plus I don't own one). For those of you who have not owned either a G5 or a Mac Pro, it's bigger and heavier than it looks.

EDIT: Removed the picture because Rich beat me in posting.

 

[netdog]

My first Mac. This was truly radical at the time. The stuff of vision.

 

[Shadow]

 

[OutThere]

I love my 12" Powerbook and still don't see a suitable replacement for it in Apple's notebook line. The form-factor and 'whoa, that's tiny' effect is just perfect. Not too many laptops fit on an airplane tray-table and also have a full complement of ports and DVD burner (grumble grumble Air grumble). I've felt that the setup of the 12" powerbook was cool since the first day it came out...having the full-size-key keyboard flush from edge to edge of the computer was pretty radical when it was new.

The poster above who said that the Mac Pro/G5 towers are bigger and heaver than they look is totally correct...they have a kind of 'presence', if you will.

 

[wightstraker]

Macintosh Classic:

This was the first computer I ever used. 9" B&W CRT, 8Mhz Motorola 68000. I miss Mac OS 6.0.7.

 

[gkarris]

I've always liked "small" and "lightweight".

I find myself on a MBA each time I'm at the Apple Store...

 

[iToaster]

The iMac G4 is definitely the best Mac of all time. The design was so perfect that there really hasn't been a better designed all-in-one yet and most likely ever. After the iMac G4 I have to put the perfectly sized 12" PowerBook next. To me it looks like the G4 era was Apple's golden age, so to speak.

 

[Apple Ink]

Im a proud owner of an iBook, iMac, 2 MBPs and an MB but I love this the most since it kind of turned everything for Apple!

 

[jellybean]

For me, iMac G4, mostly because it was my first ever mac. and it's still a one of a kind design

 

[Hrududu]

Probably my favorite Macs would be the Quadra 800, the MDD Powermac G4 simply because it was so expandable with 4 hard drive slots and 2 optical drives. The case also looked great and was the last Mac with the drop open door. The Cube of coarse is a beautiful machine. A cube with a 17" ASD and USB speakers is a salute to how Apple made the computer a piece of art.

 

[iMacmatician]

Based on what you have owned or used or even saw, what is your favorite Mac of all time?
...
Post a picture if you can find one and share some experiences.

The iMac (G3)'s back in middle school in 2004. I used to dust them off all the time, align the keyboards, and untangle the cords. The round mouse was my favorite too.

I would come to school early every day (like 45 minutes before school starts) and hop on Graphing Calculator for a while, as well as talking with other early arrivers.

I preferred OS 9 over OS X on the original iMacs and OS X over OS 9 on the later iMac G3s.

I also have memories of playing various speech voices on those Macs. One (obviously anti-Mac) guy in my class turned on the speech settings on his account so that the Mac would say "This computer sucks [and a bunch of other stuff I've forgotten]" whenever an alert was displayed. Some time after that, the teachers disabled the Speech panel in System Preferences, so he was stuck with "This computer sucks." So in computer class he'd frantically turn down the volume all the time.

Serves him right.

Now, my favorite Mac is the MacBook Air. Amazing design with innovative features. I'd probably get one if my usage habits didn't demand a more powerful Mac.

 

[David G.]

hello (again)

.

 

[nick9191]

 

[Insulin Junkie]

The Performa 5200. Because it was the first computer I ever owned. I have a few fond personal memories involving it. I'll never forget that model. I remember sitting in front of the screen for ages watching it boot.

 

[Blakely028]

Has to be the best. What a great machine:

 

[Digital Skunk]

Has to be the best. What a great machine:

Beat me too it.

By far the best made laptop of all time IMHO. Second to it would be the 17" Mac Book Pro, and they were both (the 17" Powerbook I mean) featured in the greatest product introduction commercial Apple ever made since 1984.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

...they were both featured in the greatest product introduction commercial Apple ever made since 1984.

The one with Yao Ming and Vern Troyer?

 

[Digital Skunk]

The one with Yao Ming and Vern Troyer?

Yes! I remember when it first aired and I laughed my @$$ off.

 

[NC MacGuy]

I'm with Blakely & Digital Skunk - 12" powerbook hands down.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Yes! I remember when it first aired and I laughed my @$$ off.

I love that one too! That commercial came up in a conversation I had with some of my friends just the day before yesterday. It's quite the masterpiece.

 

[JG271]

I don't know why, but my favorite is the Quicksilver G4. Maybe because it was my first mac, even though it was second hand.

I love the Powerbook 12" and of course the iMac G4, but i never owned either, that is probably why i don't like them as much as the quicksilver.